There is nothing particularly complicated about Tony Pulis. The Stoke City manager has never won a trophy and he has never been relegated. There are a couple of promotions on his CV, with Gillingham in 1996 and Stoke in 2008, but 19 years of management have generally been spent with clubs where he has been trying to succeed against the odds or, as he puts it, working "beneath the sand line". Pulis, you sense, would not want it any other way.

Bolton Wanderers go into Sunday's FA Cup semi-final against Stoke as the favourites, which will suit Pulis down to the ground. The Welshman loves being the underdog, just as he thrives on the criticism that comes his way for Stoke's style of play. "I don't take any notice of what people outside this club say," said Pulis after the line of questioning turned to Stoke's reliance on set-pieces after the 2-1 win over West Ham in the previous round, when Robert Huth headed in Rory Delap's long throw-in and Danny Higginbotham crashed home a free-kick.

Pulis might not take any notice in the sense that he has no intention of dispensing with the methods that have served him well over the best part of two decades, but he is clever enough to make sure that his players are aware of what others are saying about them. "We let people say what they want to say about us and the manager uses it to motivate us," said Matthew Etherington this week. "I think we are stereotyped this way [as a direct team] and always will be.

"We do like to get the ball up to Kenwyne [Jones], but if you watch us week in week out, you will see we also play some good stuff. But it does motivate us to hear the criticism and we use it to spur us on. We know we have good players at this club. We have stayed in the Premier League for the past two years and are close to doing it again, so we can't be a bad team if we can do that."

Agreed. Stoke are not a bad team and, looking through the squad compared to the one that finished 12th in their first season in the Premier League, they are much stronger now. For that the supporters should be grateful to Peter Coates, the chairman at the Britannia Stadium, who has backed the club to such an extent that he allowed Pulis to break their transfer record for the fourth time in a little more than two years when Jones joined from Sunderland for £8m in August.

Pulis, though, deserves a large share of the credit for rejuvenating a club who were treading water in the Championship when he returned for his second spell in charge in 2006. Within two seasons he secured promotion to the top flight for the first time in 23 years. He then kept Stoke up before securing a higher-placed finish in his second campaign. This season he has led them to a first FA Cup semi-final in 39 years, and a place in the top half of the Premier League is within reach.

Five years of continual improvement should, in theory, make the manager immune from criticism, yet the reality is that his uncompromising approach continues to rub people up the wrong way. And for that reason alone the majority of neutrals will be hoping to see a Bolton side who have undergone a facelift under Owen Coyle victorious, if only to ensure that Wembley has to put up with Delap's throw-in routine only once this season.

Note the word routine. It is not so much the throw-in that is annoying but the amount of time that is taken up before the ball comes back into play after Delap picks up his towel and waits for everyone to get into a position. The throw-ins have come to symbolise Stoke under Pulis, which is fair in some respects and unfair in others. Etherington, for instance, has been a revelation since joining from West Ham two years ago while Jermaine Pennant has added trickery and flair to the other flank.

Pulis, though, seems reluctant to introduce creativity anywhere other than the attacking wide positions. Central defenders are often deployed at full-back and in the centre of midfield there is generally only one place up for grabs because of the need to accommodate Delap, which has often resulted in Glenn Whelan, one of the best passers at the club, missing out. Further forward, Pulis likes pace and power, which helps to explain why he never managed to integrate the technically gifted Tuncay Sanli, who was a fans' favourite but proved nothing like as popular with the manager.

So, in short, the Stoke supporters are seeing a better standard of player three years on from winning promotion but pretty much the same style of play. There will be moments of individual brilliance, as Etherington and Jones demonstrated with their wonderful goals at White Hart Lane last Saturday, but the system – nearly always 4-4-2 – and the tactics – hit the targetman early – remain largely unchanged.

That should come as no surprise. Managers rarely change their philosophies, and Pulis is certainly not going to start tearing up his blueprint when he looks back on the past five years and the progress he has overseen. It hasn't always been pretty but try and find a disgruntled supporter among the 35,000 or so making their way down to London from the Potteries.